Angela Merkel insists opposition tax plans would 'throw a spanner in the works'

German chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday criticised opposition plans to raise income tax for top earners saying that this would "throw a spanner in the works" of attempts to create more jobs, as she launched the final phase of her campaign for re-election.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech during a campaign for the upcoming September 22 legislative electionsPhoto: AFP/GETTY

By Jeevan Vasagar in Berlin

1:58AM BST 09 Sep 2013

Addressing a stadium rally of party supporters in Düsseldorf, Mrs Merkel warned against complacency. "There are many who may think the election is already over," she said.

At the rally, Mrs Merkel said that tax rises would hurt job creators. Her party has ruled out tax rises. The chancellor told the rally that it was only possible to control public spending when there were plenty of people in work and healthy tax revenue.

Leaders of her Christian Democrat party warned of an opposition coalition bringing together the main left-wing party, the Social Democrats, with the Greens and Die Linke, a far left party with roots in East German Communism.

The Social Democrats have rejected the idea of cooperation with Die Linke as "inconceivable".

Mrs Merkel's opposition challenger has narrowed the gap on the chancellor in a poll published two weeks ahead of Germany's elections.

Peer Steinbrück, the Social Democrats' candidate to lead Germany, achieved a personal approval rating of 35pc, his best ever, in an Emnid poll published yesterday by Bild am Sonntag. Mrs Merkel remains in the lead with 50 per cent favouring her as the next chancellor.

Mr Steinbrück's party rose to 25 per cent in the poll while their allies the Greens are on 11 per cent. The Greens' poll numbers have been sliding since the Veggie Day row, when the tabloid Bild seized on an overlooked item in their manifesto – a proposal for a weekly vegetarian day in public canteens – under the headline: "The Greens want to ban us from eating meat." The Christian Democrats and their sister party the Christian Social Union were on 40 per cent in the poll, while their current coalition allies the Free Democrats are on 5 per cent. The Euro-sceptic Alternative für Deutschland were on 3 per cent.